SCHWAB Origin of surname
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
The German Schwab(e) designates a member of the German tribe of the Swabians. The name was applied to the Alemannen, in Latin Alamanni, a west Germanic tribe, by their neighbours on the Elbe river. The Alemannen invaded Gaul and northern Italy in the 3rd century. They settled in the Rhineland, Alsace and Switzerland. In Romance-language countries, derivatives of Alamanni, among them the French Allemand, the Spanish Aleman and the Italian Alleman(n)o, became synonyms for "German". The first Jews to reach Germany were merchants who went there in the wake of the Roman legions and settled in the Rhineland in the early 4th century. The Talmud and the Midrash apply the term Germania/Germamia to designate the countries of northern Europe. Medieval Jewish sources first refer to Germany as Allemania. Later, the biblical term Ashkenaz came into use. Jewish family names identifying Jews from Germany and other German-speaking countries include the German Deutsch and Teutsch, the Yiddish Teitsh, the Hungarian Nemet, the Russian Germanski, the Polish Nemets, the Romanian Neamt, and north European forms such as Duytsch.
Schwab is recorded as a Jewish family name with Nathan Schwab of Frankfurt am Main, western Germany in 1590; Chouabe and Chevaube in 1614; Schvaub in 1670; Schwabe in 1715; and Schouabe and Schowabe in 1720.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Schwab include the French scholar and librarian, Moise Schwab (1839-1918), and the 19th/20th century American physician, Sidney Isaac Schwab.
Loew Schwab
(Personality)Loew Schwab (1794-1857), chief rabbi of Pest, Hungary, born in Kruknau, Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire, now in Czech Republic). He studied in Nikolsburg (Mikulov) and Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava, Slovakia) under Mordecai b. Abraham Naphtali Banet and Moses Sofer respectively.
Having served first as rabbi of Gewitsch and of Prossnitz (Prostejov, Czech Republic), Schwab was invited to become chief rabbi of Pest in 1836. An outstanding Talmudist and orator, he also succeeded in creating an atmosphere of tolerance and conciliation in his congregation. The term of his rabbinate coincided with increasing Magyarization among Hungarian Jewry, which culminated in the struggle for full emancipation. Schwab encouraged the members of his community to cultivate the use of the Hungarian language, and to engage in agriculture and other productive labor; he was one of the founders of the Society for the Promotion of Handicrafts and Agriculture among Hungarian Jews (MIKEFE). Schwab was also interested in mathematics and philosophy. He was among the founders of the Jewish hospital and the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest.
In 1844 he submitted a proposal to publish the main tenets and principles of the Jewish religion, in order to prove their compatibility with the requirements of a modern state, to refute slanders by the opponents of Jewish civil rights, and to allay their suspicions. His proposal was rejected by the rabbinic council of Paks (1844), but in 1846 his own congregation of Pest entrusted him with preparing this publication. It was printed in both Hungarian and German as a compendium of religious instruction for secondary school graduates and went into seven editions.
During the 1848 revolution Schwab voiced his opinions on both religious and secular political matters. Although admitting the need for some moderate and cautious innovations in the religious sphere, Schwab strongly opposed the extreme reformist program of the congregation led by Ignaz Einhorn. He supported, however, the Hungarian national liberation movement, including the declaration of independence from Habsburg rule (1849). After the suppression of the revolutionary struggle, Schwab was arrested and kept in prison, with his son-in-law, Leopold Loew, for two weeks.
Schwab's published works include religious poems in Hebrew and German, and some sermons. Schwab's archive is kept at the National Library of Israel.